Remotely Sensed Estimates and Controls of Large-scale Oceanic Net Community Production

The biological pump mediates the transfer of carbon to the deep ocean and in the process modulates atmospheric CO2 levels. In light of this critical role in regulating our climate, it is surprising that 1) current estimates of biological carbon export production from the ocean surface still carry a large uncertainty, and 2) we have a limited understanding of how plankton communities influence export. In this talk, I will present our lab's effort to improve remotely-sensed estimates of carbon export production. I will also share results from a study we conducted at the Western Antarctic Peninsula where we combined high-resolution underway estimates of net community production with molecular analyses of the plankton community. The novel combination of techniques allows us to determine how biological carbon fluxes relate to upper ocean ecosystem characteristics.